TikTokers Share Their 'Below Board' Parenting Hacks—We're Taking Notes

Did you know that every hotel and restaurant, as well as many stores, has a secret babysitting room where misbehaved kids go? They don't have snacks or toys, and it's super boring in there. Any one of my five kids can tell you the babysitting room is real because I remind them of it when they're acting out in public.

Sorry not sorry, because this "below board" parenting hack works. Another not-exactly-on-the-up-and-up hack was recently shared by a mom on TikTok, who goes by ProfTracy. As she explained in her viral video, from a young age, she told her daughter she "was very sensitive to drugs."

To prove her point, the creator would administer a half dose of over-the-counter medication, like ibuprofen, when her daughter was sick. "I did not do this with prescribed drugs," ProfTracy stressed in her TikTok and of course, all parents should follow doctors' specific directions with prescribed medications.

And, as the creator noted in the comments section of her post, when a half dose of OTC medicine didn't clear up her daughter's symptoms, she administered the full dose. But ultimately, the mom's claim that her child suffered from a sensitivity to drugs paid off when she was older, with the creator sharing exuberantly that by the time her daughter graduated from high school, she had stayed away from drugs completely. When she finally experimented, she only tried a little, due to her "sensitivity."

Other TikTok users were loving the "long game" this mom played and poured into the comments section to confess their own "below board" hacks for surviving parenthood.

"Told my son that everyone has a 'tell' when they lie. [His] is that his hair sticks up on top of his head. He touched the top of his head when he lied," shared one expert parent, prompting the rest of us to quickly jot down this genius idea.

And who hasn't pulled this trick on their child? "Before my daughter could read, I would make up the words on posted signs to suit my needs. 'Crying children cannot enter' [or] 'no running allowed.'" A personal favorite of mine is naturally, "Naughty kids will be asked to go to the babysitting room."

Meanwhile, another brilliant parent added, "I told my kids it was against the law for anyone to push a shopping cart [who] wasn't tall enough to see over the top of it." Truly, parents shared so many great tips that I'm making a mental note of almost all of them.

"Told my 2-year-old they didn't make diapers for 3-year-olds…put him in underwear on his 3rd [birthday] and never had to potty-train!" was another prizeworthy hack shared in the comments section of a TikTok that should be required reading for all caregivers.

I'm 100 percent adopting this idea: "Tic Tacs (white) were given to me and my siblings when we were kids at [my] grandparents' house as 'magic sleeping vitamins'—worked!!!"

The hacks only got better, with another parent sharing, "My sister and I were afraid of Santa Claus. Our dad used to tell us that he lived at Chuck E. Cheese so we would never want to go there."

"My mom would always tell us we could only get the sugary cereal if it was 'on sale.' Somehow, it never went on sale," mused another TikTok user.

Finally, someone give the parent who shared this hack: "I told my toddler that [TVs] need to be charged and that sometimes when the TV randomly turns off, it's because it died. Oops." Life. Changing. Thanks, TikTok parents!